Meet the Speakers

Meet Matthew Wright, PhD​

Kevin O’Sullivan Endowed Professor and Chair of Cybersecurity at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT)

Matthew Wright, PhD, is the Kevin O’Sullivan Endowed Professor and Chair of Cybersecurity at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). He has co-authored over 100 peer-reviewed papers, including many works appearing in top-tier venues in cybersecurity, human-computer interaction, and computer networks. He won an NSF CAREER award in 2010 and has been PI on $3.5 million in externally funded projects. Within the field of cybersecurity, he has worked primarily in five topic areas: privacy and anonymity online, wireless sensor network security, human factors in security, P2P and distributed systems security, and adversarial machine learning.

Meet Erich Kron​

KnowBe4, Cybersecurity Speaker/Author

Erich Kron is a self-proclaimed geek, author, regular contributor to cybersecurity industry publications, and an experienced information security leader. His record of advancement in the industry spans a broad spectrum of experience including security roles, large scale technical project management, hands-on technical work and senior leadership roles. His many certifications include CISSP, CISSP-ISSAP as well as Microsoft and ITIL certifications.

Meet Rick Vanover

Vice President, Product Strategy, Veeam Software

Rick Vanover, Veeam’s Vice President of Product Strategy, is an expert in intelligent data management. In his role at Veeam, Rick sits at the crossroads of many types of storage. Whether it is storage systems, critical application data, data in the cloud or data anywhere in between; Rick has experience in the data management practice as IT practices change with new technologies. Follow Rick on X @RickVanover.

Meet John Romagnoli​

Vice President of Product & Marketing at FirstLight Fiber

John Romagnoli has served as Vice President of Product & Marketing at FirstLight Fiber since April 2024. Prior to this role, John was the General Manager & Commercialization Director at Tilson Technology Management, where he managed the commercialization and P&L for multiple public and private network projects. John has also held strategic planning and product development roles at Atlantic Broadband, Lightower Fiber Networks, and Sidera Networks. John holds a BSBA in Business Administration and Management from Southern New Hampshire University.